History

Since his birth, Yu Xiao found himself being pulled in every direction. Born the third of four sons to Yu De Jun, an affluent but private military official, Xiao was always vying for the opportunities and resources his father’s attention could provide. His father was not gentle, but he was fair, and effort was justly rewarded. Xiao’s mother was not his father’s wife, but a concubine, one of many that lived in the Yu household as a part of its family. As a boy he was healthy, and he was all the more valuable for it. He was doted on by his mother when possible, and when his mother could not care for him, Xiao often found himself in the company of his eldest sister. She shared his mother as well as his father and Xiao supposed that was why she had been so taken with him, at least in the beginning. They said Chu Hua adored him, and would tend to him even if there were servants at her disposal. As the eldest child, even if she was only a daughter, her word carried weight, a weight Xiao would not fully understand or appreciate until he was older. His relationships with his other siblings varied, his eldest brother, Yu Wuxian, De Jun’s legitimate heir, did not care much for another person added to the responsibility on his shoulders. Si Cheng, De Jun’s second son could not be more different. Born right after Wuxian, but not as a legitimate child, Si Cheng’s sense of competitiveness was all-encompassing. He fought with his brothers, with his tutors and even with his friends. He was intelligent, as were most of the Yu siblings, but any intellect was overshadowed by his thirst for victory and the ways in which he went about satiating it.

Xiao, who was no more legitimate than Si Cheng, but who lacked the desperation Si Cheng expected to come with their shared role, was endlessly infuriating to the older brother. Like most things, it took years for Xiao to realise the state of their relationship, or his indifference to Si Cheng’s struggle and how it affected it. Si Cheng wanted Xiao to struggle too, but he was too young and naive to understand. Seven years after Xiao’s birth, as Xiao grew into himself, tragedy befell his life.

His father was the man of the house, of course, but he was really seldom there. His title was his and he ensured everything was as it should be, but when one spent most of his time advancing his military career, it was only natural for things to fall to the wayside. Unfortunately for Xiao, his mother’s treatment was one of them. Consumption kept her confined to her chambers for months before it took her in the spring, shortly after his seventh birthday. Chu Hua mourned with him, but also ensured that they would retain their positions and their power amongst the squabbling siblings and concubines, who were rather eager to benefit from the catastrophe. Seeing them act the way they did, after they had allowed Xiao’s mother to be isolated and neglected for months as she withered away, was probably what opened Xiao’s eyes to the real world, for the first time. Catching the sharp edge to consolatory smiles came almost naturally to him, but thankfully, hiding that realisation was even easier.

Xiao knew he could not follow in his father’s footsteps and surpass Wuxian, he was not as foolish as Si Cheng to occupy himself with the mockery of a rivalry, so Xiao set his sights on the political sphere. He learned to navigate his father’s growing sense of ignorance and studied his country. Through examining the changes in his own country’s government, and the budding relationships (though perhaps, involuntary) with other nations, Xiao managed to better navigate the Yu household, making himself a prominent figure amongst his siblings. Xiao’s wit and his subtle intelligence differentiated him from his brothers. He was not a general like Wuxian and not nearly as impulsive as Si Cheng, but there was no doubt surrounding his capabilities. Xiao poured his time into his studies, into honing his skills and developing ones that would aid him in his planned career. He and Chu Hua had both exceeded their family’s expectations, though in different ways. When Xiao was sufficiently independent, Chu Hua was whisked away to the capital, where she was one of few concubines taken by the newly-adult emperor. A great honour for their family, though Xiao could not help the loneliness that gnawed at his chest.

Though a little before Chu Hua’s departure, there was still a lively air about the Yu household. Li Mei and Li Wei were brought into the world during the eighth hour of the eighth day of the eighth month. Incredibly fortuitous, the entire family expected wonderful things from them. Xiao, the closest in age, was for all intents and purposes, their brother. He made certain to protect the twins, to care for them and their mother and had grown incredibly close to them, especially in Chu Hua’s absence. With Wuxian away as well and his own mother withdrawing from the rest of them, responsibility fell onto Si Cheng and his mother, Wong Jiang Heng, to manage the household. Xiao refused to comment on the strange succession of events, but soon it was impossible to ignore the growing rift between the brothers as the divide between their stations widened. While Xiao may have been able to best his brother in a game of mahjong, or among their peers, it was all too apparent who had more power in their home. Though, Xiao was not willing to stay submissive and passive at the change of events. In an effort to define themselves, Xiao and Si Cheng competed viciously against each other. They were eager to best each other with their wit, their swords, and every other field they could manage to clash in.

Eventually, De Jun returned from his years away and sired his youngest son, Cheng, who was proclaimed another illegitimate child. At home, life had returned to something sort of familiar for Xiao, and though neither Chu Hua nor his mother were by his side, Xiao found the world was now at least palatable. Politically though, there was tension in the air as the Tongzhi Emperor took up power and directed the negotiations with the foreigners on their shores. Everything came to a head when the Emperor died of smallpox with no heir, and Chu Hua followed suit. By now, Xiao was old enough to know and to know better, but if it were not treason, he would say she had been poisoned, for he knew his sister and a broken heart was not enough to end her life. The last letter she sent him detailed her suspicions of as much, but of course, encoded in silly little phrases created when Xiao was a boy who did not wish for the servants to know he had tried to steal some food from the kitchen. The encryption was useful, but in the end did not seem to matter at all. His father, distressed at their reputation, at his career and, Xiao liked to think, at losing his eldest and dearest daughter, found age took its toll harsher by tenfold than it had before and soon, his heart ceased to beat.

Now, with no sister, father or mother, Xiao felt that he was truly alone.

Xiao eventually discovered that a broken heart was not what killed his father either, but the opium that had compounded in his system.

Wuxian was recalled, and after a period of mourning, he resumed his rightfully inherited role, one that was constantly tried by both Xiao and Si Cheng as they tried to get their ways. Wuxian was a man of little patience, with all of the strengths of his father, but with weaknesses that meant he was not nearly as fair as De Jun had been. He wished to sort everything out sensibly and timely, having little time for politics and what he described as elementary squabbles. Jia Yi, Si Cheng’s twin, was married off almost immediately in exchange for a promotion for Wuxian, a deal so blatant it left a cruel taste in Xiao’s mouth. After a few months of relative peace, rumours started to circulate about Wuxian’s plans for their little sisters. For the past eleven years, Xiao had done all he could to protect them from any strife, managing to ensure they pursue their education and interests without experiencing their father’s wrath or lack of goodwill. With their father gone, it was almost too obvious how incapable Xiao was now. Wuxian wanted them out of his hair, Si Cheng wanted to use the twins to strengthen the Yu family’s political presence, especially considering how their sister’s recent death affected its reputation. Xiao at least wanted his brothers to wait, but the Yu family needed to make its move soon.

And so a year before the sino-french war, the Yu family announced an engagement, but it was not Li Wei’s, or Li Mei’s, as Xiao and Cheng had managed to stall their older brothers that long, but it was Xiao who found himself with a fiancée. Li Jing Qi came from a powerful family, one the empress dowager herself was fond of. She herself was a very confident woman, one who used tricks and games to circumvent the typical conventions of the daughter of a politician. An ideal match, especially for their family, there were only two major obstacles.

Xiao did not want to be married.

And Si Cheng was hopelessly taken with Xiao’s future bride. A myriad of things led to their engagement lasting years longer than it should, as both Si Cheng and Xiao attempted to find alternatives. Still, Wuxian had been adamant that it was either Xiao’s engagement or his sisters’, so he found himself playing the diligent son, up until Wuxian lost his life to a group of French soldiers in Vietnam.

And then Xiao’s sisters contracted scarlet fever, ensuring that their engagement prospects needed to be held off. Xiao would not say he was naive enough to believe that he specifically was being punished by some higher power, but he was bitter enough to behave like it anyways. In the engagement’s final months, the Yu estate was practically inhospitable. Cheng had been sent off to join the military, he and Si Cheng fought daily, and Xia could not help the trapped feeling that sunk into his skin. He was not meant to follow in his father’s path, to stay bound to his homeland through a wife he barely knew and siblings who either used him or were used against him.

Si Cheng came to him, finally, though it was unlike the sort of reunion ideal brothers could hope for. Xiao should have expected he was being watched, but he had been incredibly foolish in the months before his departure, distracted by the foreigners on the docks and at certain doors.

His dear brother , incredibly reluctantly, but still voluntarily, and offered him an escape, a way to disappear as he bought them both time. Xiao would find his way to foreign soil, his money would go to his sisters’ treatments, and then their dowries, and would not spend his life trapped under the Yu family’s roof or between the Li family’s walls. Additionally, Si Cheng would not broadcast to the world Xiao's more unusual proclivities, his time spent with those of a more English persuasion, and his sisters were to be protected under Si Cheng's influence, that was what finally persuaded him. Xiao would spend his life under Si Cheng’s thumb, there was little to know doubt about that, but at least his sisters would survive, would live long enough to be able to shape their own lives and avoid whatever mistakes Xiao had apparently committed. Though it was not the diplomatic task of his dreams, it would do.

Xiao made his way to London, as the secretary to one of the foreigners he had met shortly after the sino-french war. He did not often discuss his past, choosing instead to avoid any such conversations with charming words and an easy grin, but he was well aware of the temporary state of his current situation.